How Far Should I Go?

[LondonGuy]

Hi virgin boater here.

O.K...so I hire a boat from Horning, for a week. It is too big to pass under the three lowest bridges.

How far should I aim to travel in a week. 

Do I stick to the North?

Do I cross Braydon waters?

What would you advise?

[OldBerkshireBoy]

Seeing as you`ve said in another post that Breydon is a bit scary stick to the North, relax and enjoy yourself.

[LondonGuy]

Is there enough to see/do in a week staying North?

[MauriceMynah]

That largely depends on what you want to see, and completely depends on what you want to do.

[Meantime]

1 hour ago, LondonGuy said:

Hi virgin boater here.

O.K...so I hire a boat from Horning, for a week. It is too big to pass under the three lowest bridges.

How far should I aim to travel in a week. 

Do I stick to the North?

Do I cross Braydon waters?

What would you advise?

You haven't said when you will be hiring. So the first place to start is by looking at the tide tables and working out if it's feasible to cross Breydon Water and if it is, the best part of the week to do it. With the hours of daylight diminishing by the day at this time of year it does get harder to plan a trip across Breydon at low slack water which is the best time to cross. It is obviously far easier during the longer days of late Spring and Summer.

 

[LondonGuy]

Summer.

[MauriceMynah]

My parents didn't go "south" for the first 30 years of hiring boats on the broads. 

When they did eventually go south, they didn't much care for it and didn't go again.

[RS2021]

Both times we've been we've stayed north. It made for a very relaxing holiday. Simply messing about in boats. Visiting a few of the nature trails, villages and pubs. But, it really depends on what you want from a holiday. If you want to spend more time on the move, then go south as well (tide time permitting - I've always found this table useful as you can put the dates of your holiday in http://www.norfolk-broads.org/tides/tide_report.asp ) 

You'll get a lot of great advice on where you can go and what you can see from everyone on here and then choose what suit you.

[ranworthbreeze]

5 minutes ago, RS2021 said:

Both times we've been we've stayed north. It made for a very relaxing holiday. Simply messing about in boats. Visiting a few of the nature trails, villages and pubs. But, it really depends on what you want from a holiday. If you want to spend more time on the move, then go south as well (tide time permitting - I've always found this table useful as you can put the dates of your holiday in http://www.norfolk-broads.org/tides/tide_report.asp ) 

You'll get a lot of great advice on where you can go and what you can see from everyone on here and then choose what suit you.

A lot if not all of that information can be found on our information pages.

 

[catcouk]

I assume when you say the three lowest bridges, you mean Potter, Wroxham, and Beccles.

I have yet to pass Beccles but it's a long way from Horning. I'm not sure anyone in a cruiser gets under Potter any more. It's lovely above Wroxham but not essential. As someone else said, if you want to cruise more, then it's worth going South - things are a lot more spread out. I have spent a week cruising between Norwich, Wroxham, and Stalham but I also spent several days just stopping everywhere between Potter and Coltishall.

Do whatever you feel like and don't be afraid - particularly if you have summer light hours. Don't leave mooring up too late in the summer though.

[SwanR]

I would recommend that you read some of the holiday tales posted on the forum. There is a section for them and many members here like to write about what they've done, including myself.

I've stayed on whichever side I've hired from for a week's holiday so if you're hiring on the north there's plenty to see and do for a week. But if you enjoy long cruising days then you may want to plan to cross Breydon if the tide times work out.

But as I said, if you spend some time reading other folks' experiences you may pick up some good ideas for an itinerary for a week.